KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry will be ramping up its Covid-19 vaccination outreach programme in Sabah after seeing the state’s slow progress in immunising its people.

       Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said while the ministry is confident that all states will reach the target of 80% fully vaccinated adults within October, Sabah might not make it in time.

       “Sabah is the one state that we are concerned might not reach the 80% benchmark. So I’ve instructed the state health department to ramp up its outreach programme.

       “We found that people have stopped going to PPVs (vaccination centres). There are not many people at PPVs nowadays.

       “So we need to move all our resources towards the outreach programme in Sabah and reach out to as many people in the state,” said Khairy at a press conference in Hospital Kuala Lumpur after a working visit there on Thursday (Oct 7).

       Based on the ministry’s CovidNow website, the states that have yet to reach the 80% benchmark of fully vaccinated adults are Pahang (79%), Kedah (78.2%), Perak (77.3%), Kelantan (72.9%) and Sabah (63.3%).

       Khairy said he is confident the other states will pass the 80% threshold this month.

       In Sabah, 72.9% of its adult population have received at least one vaccination dose.